Officials to discuss rule for using long putters

Ernie Els of South Africa reacts after putting on the 18th green with his caddie Ricky Roberts at Royal Lytham & St Annes golf club during the final round of the British Open Golf Championship, Lytham St Annes, England Sunday, July 22, 2012. (AP Photo/Tim Hales)
— AP

Ernie Els of South Africa reacts after putting on the 18th green with his caddie Ricky Roberts at Royal Lytham & St Annes golf club during the final round of the British Open Golf Championship, Lytham St Annes, England Sunday, July 22, 2012. (AP Photo/Tim Hales)
/ AP

Adam Scott of Australia reacts after missing a putt on the 18th green at Royal Lytham & St Annes golf club during the final round of the British Open Golf Championship, Lytham St Annes, England Sunday, July 22, 2012. (AP Photo/Chris Carlson)— AP

Adam Scott of Australia reacts after missing a putt on the 18th green at Royal Lytham & St Annes golf club during the final round of the British Open Golf Championship, Lytham St Annes, England Sunday, July 22, 2012. (AP Photo/Chris Carlson)
/ AP

LYTHAM ST. ANNES, England 
One day after Ernie Els won the British Open to become the third major champion using a belly putter, the Royal & Ancient said long putters were "firmly back on the radar" and that a decision could come soon on whether players can keep using them.

R&A chief executive Peter Dawson said discussions with the U.S. Golf Association about longer putters anchored to the body began before Els holed a 15-foot birdie putt on the 18th hole to win the claret jug at age 42.

Keegan Bradley at the PGA Championship and Webb Simpson at the U.S. Open both used belly putters. Adam Scott, who had a four-shot lead with four holes to play in the British Open, was using a long putter that he says helped turn around his game.

"We appreciate that there is much speculation about this and that we need to clarify the position as soon as possible," Dawson said Monday. "And I think you're going to see us saying something about it one way or the other in a few months, rather than years."

But he made clear that the R&A and USGA, which set the rules for golf around the world, have not decided whether to ban them.

"This decision has not been taken," he said. "Please don't think that it has."

Tiger Woods was among those this year who recommended that the putter simply be the shortest club in the bag. Els once criticized the long putters, but when he struggled mightily with his putting, he switched to a belly putter late last year.

"As long as it's legal, I'll keep cheating like the rest of them," Els said in October.

Dawson said the discussion with the governing bodies has switched from an equipment issue to a rules issue.

"The initial determination has been that we are examining the subject from a method of stroke standpoint rather than length of putter standpoint, and that takes it into the area of the rules of play, the rules of golf, rather than the rules of equipment," he said.

The rules committees of the R&A and USGA are conducting the study, and each will make a recommendation.

Because it is being treated as a potential rule change, it would not become effective until 2016. The Rules of Golf are updated every four years.

Jim MacArthur, chairman of the championship committee for the R&A, said there were 27 long putters and 16 belly putters in the 156-man field at the Open. Dawson said the number of golfers using the long putter has dramatically increased from about 5 percent five years ago, although he did not notice an increase at the recent British Amateur.

"It hasn't yet backed its way all the way down the game, although the statistics would show - and I've checked this with the manufacturers - that at the club level or recreational level, they are much more used in the United States than they are anywhere else in the world," Dawson said.